Appointment Setting – Prospect Impressions Of Your Business

December 19th, 2012

Impressions obviously matter in appointment setting. The image that prospects have of your financial planning services will be the one they will carry all the way to the set appointment. They will carry it even after the appointment setting process was a success and they are now an official client.

What Shapes Your Image Shapes Your Appointment Setting Strategy

Financial services is an industry with quite the mixed up reputation. It has so many representations and archetypes (both based on real and fictional examples). Your appointment setting strategy can use this to an advantage but this upper hand can turn on you just as easily.

One way you can start is to get a rough idea on the different ways financial advisers are portrayed or imagined. Usually these are:

The Wise Man – If your appointment setting process presents this image, your are presenting an ideal. The Wise Man represents the kind of financial adviser who stands for just practices. If your appointment setting campaign markets this image, you will do more than generate financial sales leads. All eyes will be on you and others for many reasons, will try to test how much you can hold to your integrity. However, difficult as it is to maintain that image, the trust you will gain does more than just improve appointment setting.

The Forecaster – Sometimes your appointment setting campaign markets you as neither a hero nor a villain. You present yourself as simply a resourceful and accurate manager of money. You avoid moralizing but at the same time, you are not shy of predicting the worst as the result of risky financial actions. This has the potential to give your more appointment setting prospects because you are neither stern but you also have a reputation of not whitewashing undeniable facts.

The Schemer – In a perfect world, financial schemers would not even exist because no honest businessman would allow themselves to meet one for appointment setting. Alas, this is not a perfect world. And whether you claim yourself innocent, some prospects might regard because you did something wrong in the past. You might also find yourself tempted by those engaged in even far worst business practices (reaching as far down to criminal). How willing are you to change this image for B2B appointment setting?

Each of these images have one thing in common. They will form the expectations your prospects will lay down during appointment setting. That is why, if you find these expectations a little beyond you, it would be wiser to change the impressions immediately. Better yet, change whatever it is creating that inaccurate image before the start of your appointment setting campaign

That requires a thorough reevaluation of your own business. Get third parties like investigative groups as well as your previous appointment setting prospects to help you with their feedback. The sooner you know what impressions people have on your business, the sooner you can do something about it.